Poland expressed its readiness to guard the Slovakian airspace if the country stops using the MiG-29 fighter jets. At the beginning of April Slovakia stated that it would consider providing Ukraine with aircraft to fight against russian forces' invasion. But to do so, it needs to organize its airspace defence.
The statements on changes in Slovakia's sky defence were made at the joining press conference of the Polish and Slovakian defence ministers, as Sky News writes.
"I received confirmation that Poland is ready to take care of Slovakia's airspace when it decides to pause using the MiG-29 fighter jets," – Slovakia's minister of defence Jaroslav Nad said.
The defence minister added that legislative measures were necessary for such a step and added that his state was working on the issue.
The head of the Poland defence body Mariusz Błaszczak, in his turn, stated that his country can use the experience of guarding the Baltics countries' airspace.
"As a rule, we will expand the scope of operations of the Polish squad that uses F-16 fighter jets," – he said.
Slovakia has 12 MiG-29 fighter jets in operation and expects to receive the first party of F-16 jets it ordered from the U.S. in 2024.
After the beginning of russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine Slovakia handed over C-300 to our defenders for air defence purposes. On 19 March, the reports appeared that Germany and Netherlands at NATO's request would supply American surface-to-air missile systems Patriot to Slovakia in replacement of its air defence systems C-300 that it, in turn, was to hand over to Ukraine.